I made a post in February last year asking if anyone had an Amstrad PPC-512 or 640 going for sale, and have now found (and bought) one. Just like I remember them.

I heard that you can put a 10/20MiB hard drive into them, using some sort of fix or hack or whatever you want to call it. I'd like to know how or where I can find out how to do this. 720K disks are all very well, but I only have a single one, and I'm not forking out tens of pounds to buy a handful. So, if anyone knows where I can learn how to do this, and buy the necessary stuff, will you please let me know? I will, of course, reward you with photographs of the machine running Windows 1, 2, and 3 (in real mode, of course).

I want to use the machine for real stuff, you see - as surprizing as that might sound. Especially programming; would help me to learn to be a more efficient programmer, I'm sure.

I have a PPC-512.Sorry for my English.1. FloppiesNot all floppies are good to re-format to 720K.

2. Hard Disks, graphics, ISA cards, etc.I haven't tried it: http://www.xaragmata.thebbs.org/ppc.htmlAh, and the hack, as I remember it was adding some kind of an internal controller to ISA bus .I also tried adding ZIP drives, EPAT, EPEZ, EPIA modules and etc. to parallel port and booting from floppy with drivers. No result, even with palmzip drivers - parallel port is in fact printer port only (no input). I heard that it works with PPC640, not 512.

3. 640K memory.Disassembling this device isn't very difficult, turn it upside down, remove battery cover, remove screws, be careful not to break tab, in which you'll have to put a flat screwdriver. OK, Mainboard is composed of two PCBs, try not to damage a voltage regulator while disassembling them. Locate the board with memory chips. Use solder sucker to make holes clear, solder DIP sockets in, install memory chips from additional 128K section of an old XT board. Timing doesn't have to be exactly the same, change jumpers noticed in board or in documentation (documentation was somewhere in seasip.info). I made it successfully with my friend's PPC512 many years ago.